Mark Penn is the worldwide CEO of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen, and Berland Associates. He has been called the “Master of the Message” by Time magazine, the “Guru of Small Things” by the New York Times, and “the most powerful man in Washington you’ve never heard of” by the Washington Post. He is credited with inventing both the overnight poll and the “mall test”—a method of showing shoppers prospective ads and learning their reactions in real time. Penn has helped to elect more than twenty-five leaders in the United States, Asia, Latin America, and Europe in addition to serving as chief advisor to President Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential election and to Hillary Rodham Clinton through her Senate and presidential races. He also serves as strategic consultant to top Fortune 500 companies, including Ford Motor Company, Merck, Verizon, BP, McDonald’s, and Microsoft, and he has been a key advisor to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer since 1998. In 2000 and 2004, Penn was awarded the highest honor in his profession, the American Association of Political Consultants’ Pollster of the Year Award. He is also a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. |
